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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
04-14-2024, 10:03 PM
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The last time I bought anything from Japan I contacted the people from Japanexposures.com and told them what I was looking for and they were able to give me a couple of good leads. They are very reliable and I have had excellent results with their company in the past. I have purchased several expensive lenses through them. They also had a service at one time where they would locate what you wanted and handle the entire transaction through their company. As you can imagine this can be expensive so unless you are looking for something out of the ordinary you may not want to do this.
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Forum: Vintage Cameras and Equipment
04-02-2024, 03:09 PM
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I agree with the others. You haven't even gotten going yet. I have that many Pentax SVs alone. They don't all work but they do look pretty. :D
EDIT - Actually that isn't totally true, They do all work as long as it doesn't go below freezing. The shutters on a couple of mine are a little temperamental when they feel too chilly.
I am trying to convince my wife to move to Tuscon, Arizona.
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Forum: General Talk
04-01-2024, 05:31 PM
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If this is not an April Fools joke I am all in!!
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Forum: Pentax Q
03-28-2024, 12:19 PM
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Too bad. I had one of their TLRs and really enjoyed it.
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Forum: Pentax Q
03-28-2024, 10:07 AM
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Intriguing but I will stay with my Q7. I use it as scout camera for large format outings and it works perfectly. I have a little hoodie to block sun from the rear screen if I need it.
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Forum: Pentax Medium Format
03-24-2024, 04:07 PM
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Never tried the 120 for portraits, the 150 always worked perfectly so had no reason to.
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Forum: Lens Sample Photo Archive
03-23-2024, 05:57 PM
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A couple from my desk...just for the fun of it. :D
I do enjoy this lens and I really should do it justice...but for now I couldn't resist.
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Forum: Lens Sample Photo Archive
03-23-2024, 05:09 PM
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Nice set. I'll have to dig my 28-90 out for a few.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
03-21-2024, 12:04 PM
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
03-20-2024, 08:44 AM
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I tried them as well this time and received the dreaded blinking battery icon. To be fair I would have recommended the same batteries since they seem to work for me more often than they don't. These were still in the package as well.
Ah well. I guess that my camera is a very picky eater. The Ray-O-Vac's seem to be working right now.
---------- Post added 03-20-24 at 09:16 AM ----------
This is very interesting information. I wonder if this may be related to the "freshness" of the battery. Perhaps this is why people are reporting that some rechargeables are working for them. It may also explain why one brand seems to work one time and then the same brand fails to work another time. For example I have had Energizer brand Photo Lithium AA batteries work in the past yet this last time the same brand of battery failed to work even though they were removed from their packaging just prior to putting them in the camera.
Likewise this time I used a set of Rayovac High Energy AA batteries, which are NOT lithium batteries, and they worked just fine. I have a second of these Pentax 6mp cameras, a *ist DL2, which is also very choosy about which battery it likes. I tried a few of the same batteries I tried on the *ist DS yesterday and they failed to work in this camera as well. I inserted another new set of these Rayovac High Energy Alkaline AA batteries and the camera switched on.
I have tried various AA batteries in the past and usually both of these cameras seemed to prefer the CR-V3 batteries. That may not actually be true but only just the luck of the draw.
A few people on this thread, as well as on others on the same topic, have reported that cleaning or roughing the battery contacts seems to make a difference. I wonder if a small amount of film or varnish across the contact would have an effect on this as well. I'll see if I have some time today to try lightly roughing the battery contacts with some fine sandpaper on the same batteries that failed to work yesterday and then trying them again.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
03-19-2024, 11:15 AM
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Thanks Paul. I visit your posts regularly showing your results with your old 6mp cameras and enjoy it a lot. I should post there more often myself but usually print my output instead.
Anyway I started trying double A batteries because the CR-V3 were not working reliably either. The set before this happened were CR-V3s and had lasted quite awhile. That was probably why I was so frustrated this time around because I hadn't had to worry about this battery issue for quite awhile.
Anyway, it is running again. Now I need to go refresh my memory on using flash since I have some portraits to take with the camera this weekend.
That and I have to fix my 32 year old dryer which has started squealing again. At least I know how to take that one apart. :D.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
03-19-2024, 11:00 AM
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If I neglected to mention it, I do clean the contacts in the camera similar to how I clean them in some of my old Vivitar flashes, which are even older than this camera and yet continue to work.
I do not remember the exact battery voltages when I measured them but they were well within the expected norm and the same as the ones I measured at the same time. Several of the batteries I tried were removed out of their original packaging.
And yes, it is an old, old, old camera. But so is my Spottie and K1000 and they still work. I sometimes feel that as long as we continue to accept that products we buy today will not last very long, they will never get any better in the future. Sorry, I know I am probably out of the normal with that attitude.
My experience with electronic things, like this 18 year old laptop I am writing on, is that they either die relatively soon after having come to life, or just keep on going for a very, very long time. Usually the biggest issue is proprietary batteries. Companies just stop making the batteries and once they run out the device becomes a paperweight. That is actually why I felt that the Pentax be usable for a very long time. It did not use proprietary batteries like the newer Pentax cameras so was not dependent on a continued supply.
Somebody a while back had suggested that their was some internal capacitor that was supposed to retain enough voltage to keep your settings active when the batteries went dead. Their theory was this capacitor had gone bad and was no longer working and that this was causing the problem. That may be true because I know that I have to reset the date and time every time this happens.
Anyway, thanks again.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
03-19-2024, 10:36 AM
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and...to answer a few questions.
It does this everytime I have to change batteries. Once I get a good set of batteries in it the camera will work wonderfully and reliably until that set finally dies. It turns on and off, takes pictures, allows me to preview them and everything else it is expected to do. It will last several days of regular use or sit unused for 3 months or more and come to life perfectly.
But once this set of batteries go dead I will go through this rigamarole of trying batteries yet again. It refuses to recognize perfectly good batteries for no apparent reason. Finally something clicks and it will recognize a specific set of batteries. Why it decides these are good and others are bad I do not pretend to know. Sometimes they are AA, sometimes they are CR-V3. Sometimes they are alkaline and sometimes they are lithium. There is no rhyme or reason to it. This time I tried 4 new CR-V3 batteries, eight brand-new Lithium AA batteries and 8 Ray-O-Vac High Energy Alkaline batteries. The last set of Ray-O-Vac properly tickled whatever digital decision-making algorithm exists inside its' electronic circuitry and it decided to work yet again.
The next time around I'll probably go through some of the same batteries and it may recognize one of the sets that it declined the last time. It has done that before. Other times I will steal some used batteries out of something else and that will tickle its' fancy. Who know? I guess one of these times it will just continue to refuse batteries until I finally do give up on it. I wish I could find the original external power source that came along with it but that is one of those things I have misplaced over the years of owning it. If someone has a spare on you don't mind letting me use I would gladly pay for it. At least then I could use it as a tethered studio camera.
Someday it will certainly die. Electronic gadgets seem to do that more frequently than we would like. That will be a sad day for me when it happens.
I know in some people's minds this particular camera has far outlived its' expected life span. And it probably has. But no one seems to be able to replicate the results this sensor provides so I will probably just keep using it until smoke rolls out of the battery door.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
03-19-2024, 10:09 AM
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I tried several sets of batteries, a couple CR-V3, a few lithium and finally two sets of RayOVac High Energy. The last set of RayOVacs worked. I think they are actually alkaline, not lithiums.
Every single battery tested as good but the camera did not recognize them as good.
I love this camera, the images it produces are absolutely amazing, and the prints are stunning even though it only has a 6mp sensor. Although I primarily work with film, this is just about the only digital camera I actually enjoy working with.
HOWEVER!!!!
This flipping battery issue is enough to make me want to throw it off the side of a cliff sometimes.
And Pentax has absolutely ignored it. Their only suggestion is to clean the battery's contacts.
What a joke.
I think you can tell I am frustrated. Having to run around the house looking for various batteries that all test as good makes me that way.
BTW, thank for your responses and I do apologize for my momentary lapse of decorum..
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
03-19-2024, 09:01 AM
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I put fresh batteries in my *istD S and the battery icon just sits there and flashes.
WHY!!!
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-07-2024, 04:36 PM
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My personal film preferences have generally been to go much larger than 35mm so I doubt this new camera won't work out for me. Of course I learned many, many years ago to never say never. This one was never aimed at my wheelhouse from the beginning.
However, I do hope that this does work out for Pentax and that it leads to a "full-frame" point and shoot and perhaps even more. A similar camera using 120 film to shoot 645 (120 roll film half frame) could be exciting, even for the youngsters. :D
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-03-2024, 12:38 PM
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I'll be headed out this afternoon to see how far I can make into a canyon after cleaning up some of this new snow in the yard. I have robins all over the yard and in the trees this morning. The cats are having fits and all three are lined up in front of the patio door. The robins are having fun teasing them. Looks a bit odd to see robins strutting around the yard with 3 inches of fresh snow on the ground but they know it is spring even if we can't tell yet. Unfortunately those pix will have to wait until I finish and develop the film.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-02-2024, 05:53 PM
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Most certainly a different use case and definitely not something you slide into a pocket unless it is a big Parka pocket. That little FA 43 Limited makes them a bit more svelte and the PZ1 handles that lens like a pro. They are great cameras but I don't think they are really a big seller with kids.
Even though I am not in the market for this half frame camera I do honestly hope this works out for Pentax. Who knows what could happen if this turns out to be a real runaway success. Lots of kids buying film made Instax a terrific seller for Fuji. I would love to see something similar happen for Pentax.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-02-2024, 03:21 PM
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Remember to let us all know how it works out for you. I myself was hoping for something a bit different. Not necessarily a K1000 but at least full frame. It may well show up anyway on the heels of this one.
That's ok though, as a way of dealing with my disappointment at the news I picked up a "new" PZ1 off of fleabay for $30 yesterday. I really didn't need it but I'm pretty sure it will go along way toward making me feel better and I still have lots of money left over for film. :D
And it will likely show up in the mail a bit sooner than this new Pentax will.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
03-02-2024, 02:25 PM
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I guess I won't be bothering with this after all. Half frame doesn't do me any good.
I do wish them luck though.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
02-16-2024, 09:56 AM
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Love the PZ-1p! It really is an awesome camera.
Enjoy!!
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-12-2024, 02:45 PM
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I'll buy it just like I bought the K1000 way back when, and the *ist D when it arrived.
I only hope it has a good lens.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
01-10-2024, 03:10 PM
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First off, if something does come out of this I plan on buying one.
Second, I know that we all enjoy our mechanical Pentax SLRs but I really, really doubt that we are the market.
Ask yourself this...what are young kids using to take pictures today? Better yet, what are young Japanese children using to take pictures?
I definitely don't keep up with trends but I very seriously doubt that even my own grandchildren want a K1000, or an LX, I use those cameras regularly and I know they are not interested in them.
Digital and cell phone photography became big because it was instant. Fuji Instax became big because it is instant. I can see the result right now. I can share it right now. My grandson can whip out his cell phone and take 17 pictures before I can answer my own phone. He can probably delete them all just as quick.
I think the first camera out of the gate will be something that will appeal to our kids, not to us. Pentax wants us to buy these for our kids, not for us. And they really want us to buy a lot of them.
I think half frame makes lots of sense. A few years ago I handed my Pentax PZ1p to my 10 year old grandson. He blew through a roll of Kodak Portra 400 in about 5 minutes chasing the cat around the living room. When I developed that roll I had 35 blurry shots of a orange cat's tail and one halfway decent shot of the cat itself, and that was the first shot he took. I scanned it and printed it to 5x7, and it was barely clear enough to stand that much enlargement. He still has that picture.
But we sure had fun watching him blow through that roll of film. You better start asking yourself what your kids or grandkids will be asking to get next Christmas! If it is this Pentax camera then maybe we will get an SLR out of the deal...maybe. I hope that happens but I'm not giving up on my K1000 in the meanwhile.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
11-23-2023, 05:36 PM
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An early winter view of the Ruby Mountains from Elko Mountain in Elko County, Nevada.
*ist DL2; SMC Pentax-F Zoom 35-70
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
11-23-2023, 05:00 PM
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An oldie but goodie from my *ist DL2. I just love the output from these old Pentax digital cameras
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